Natural Cleaning Solutions

When I was pregnant with Evan I discovered I could not stand the smell of cleaning products. And then, once I had the little guy, I had nightmares of having to call the poison control center because he ate some Comet or something. So, I started experimenting with making my own cleaning products, read a book or two on it and basically now I clean with bon ami and a mixture of vinegar/water/peppermint oil. I did get over some of my paranoia and Steve likes his cleaning products so we still have some of the other stuff in the house, but I find those two things do most of the cleaning jobs just fine. However, we have tile in our kitchen and bathrooms and I hadn't found a way to get the grout clean since we moved here. After almost 3 years, the grout is getting gross! Then, my Real Simple magazine came a month or two ago and had all these great ideas of how to clean with common household items like lemons and castile soap (ok, I admit, castile soap is not a common item in my house...)ect. and there was a tiny section on cleaning grout! So, I decided to try it. Basically, you mix creme of tartar with lemon juice and scrub the grout with a toothbrush and then wipe clean. As you can see from the pics, I've gotten fairly good results from this process. Of course, I didn't have enough creme of tartar so only half my kitchen grout is done. But I can't wait to go buy some more and finish the job and not have my kitchen floor gross me out anymore! Hurray!

my cleaning "kit"and my cleaner tile grout

can you see the clean strip compared to the nonclean grout?

a close up so you can better compare!